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November 3
Spiritual Bouquet: I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13
SAINT MARTIN de PORRES
Dominican Coadjutor Brother
(1579-1639)
Saint Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579, during the days when Spanish noblemen and many adventurers were still in the land, fascinated by the lure of the gold and silver which abounded there. He was the natural son of one of these and a young Indian woman. It was not long before his dark complexion caused his father to be ashamed of him and his mother, and to abandon them. Later the father would regret his too rapid decision, and take Martin under his protection.
The young boy often heard himself referred to as a half-breed, and all his life long, his profound humility saw in himself only the magnanimity of God amid the inadequacy of his origins. When his mother could not support him and his sister, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, then placed with a surgeon to learn the medical arts. This caused him great joy, though he was only ten years old, for he could exercise charity to his neighbor while earning his living. Already he was spending hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased rather than diminished as he grew older. Until his death he would flagellate himself three times every night, for his own failings and for the conversion of pagans and sinners.
He asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a tertiary. When he was 24, he was given the habit of a Coadjutor Brother and assigned to the infirmary of that convent, where he would remain in service until his death at the age of sixty. His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role, and he never disappointed them. On the contrary, it was not long before miracles began to happen, and Saint Martin was working also with the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. He begged for alms to procure for them necessities the Convent could not provide, and Providence always supplied what he sought.
One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Saint Martin, seeing the Divine Mendicant in him, took him to his own bed, paying no heed to the fact that he was not perfectly neat and clean. One of his brethren, considering he had gone too far in his charity, reproved him. Saint Martin replied: “Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”
When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single convent of the Rosary sixty religious who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Saint Martin is known to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was observed in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened; and these facts were duly verified by the surprised Superiors. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial Superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the religious, forbid him to continue to do so. His sister, who lived in the country, offered her house to lodge those whom the residence of the religious could not hold. One day he found on the street a poor Indian, bleeding to death from a dagger wound, and took him to his own room until he could transport him to his sister’s hospice. The Superior, when he heard of this, reprimanded his subject for disobedience. He was extremely edified by his reply: “Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity.” In effect, there are situations where charity must prevail; and instruction is very necessary. The Superior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.
In normal times Saint Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent — the latter phenomenon hard to explain by ordinary calculations. To Saint Martin the city of Lima owed a famous residence founded for orphans and abandoned children, where they were formed in piety for a creative Christian life. This lay Brother had always wanted to be a missionary, but never left his native city; yet even during his lifetime he was seen elsewhere, in regions as far distant as Africa, China, Algeria, Japan. An African slave who had been in irons said he had known Martin when he came to relieve and console many like himself, telling them of heaven. When later the same slave saw him in Peru, he was very happy to meet him again and asked him if he had had a good voyage; only later did he learn that Saint Martin had never left Lima. A merchant from Lima was in Mexico and fell ill; he said aloud: “Oh, Brother Martin, if only you were here to care for me..!” and immediately saw him enter his room. And again, this man did not know until later that he had never been in Mexico.
When he died in 1639, Saint Martin was known to the entire city of Lima; word of his miracles had made him known as a Saint to every resident of the region. After his death, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and found intact, and exhaling a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Clement XIII; Gregory XVI beatified him in 1836, and in 1962 Pope John XXIII canonized him. The poor and the sick will never fail to find in him a friend having great power over the Heart of God.
Source: Vie du Bienheureux Martin de Porrès, by Fr. Arthur M. Granger, O.P. (Dominican Press: St. Hyacinthe, 1941).
SAINT HUBERT
Bishop of Maestricht and of Liège
(†727)
Nobility, sanctity, apostolic zeal and the gift of miracles have made this great man one of the most illustrious prelates of the first centuries of the French monarchy. The son of a non-Christian nobleman of Aquitaine (southwestern France), he was raised at the court of Thierry III, son of Clovis II, and was esteemed there for his probity and prudence. He remained nonetheless a man of the world, whose virtue, unscathed by the dangers of the court in a time of troubles, was natural rather than supernatural; he did not yet know what the spirit of mortification, prayer and fundamental humility of a Christian were. He married a daughter of a count of Louvain, who was virtuous and recommendable by her exceptional qualities.
Saint Hubert was passionately fond of hunting, and it was through this passion that God, taking pity on his soul, stopped him in the midst of a hunt one day, to make of him a zealous apostle fit to bring the light of the Gospel to the same regions that had been the theater of his vain amusements. One Sunday Hubert had gone to hunt in the forest of Ardennes. A beautiful deer he was pursuing suddenly stood before him, and to his amazement he saw a crucifix amid its antlers, and heard a voice saying to him, “Hubert, Hubert, how long will this vain passion make you forget the salvation of your soul? Do you not know that you are on earth to know and love your Creator and in that way possess Him in heaven? If you do not turn to the Lord and live a holy life, you will fall into the depths of hell.” This voice and this sight filled him with amazement and fear; he leaped down from his horse, prostrated himself on the ground, adored the cross of his Master before him, and protested that he would abandon the world and consecrate himself entirely to religion.
He went to Saint Lambert, bishop of Maestricht for instruction and under his direction made progress in the ways of God. He conceived a desire for a more perfect life. At that time his beloved wife died on giving birth to a son, Floribert, who would later succeed his father as bishop of Liege. He renounced all his dignities, military duties and the dukedom of Aquitaine which he inherited at the death of his father in 688, assigning his rights to his brother, and confiding to him his son, three years old. He distributed all he owned to the poor, braving the calumnies and insults of the world he had too long served. In 689 he went into a solitude of the forest of Ardennes near a monastery; there he lived a very austere life for several years, undergoing violent attacks from the ancient enemy, who did not cease to remind him of his former life of ease. His profound humility aided him to triumph over these ruses and become very alert to the presence of the Holy Angels and of God, assisting him at all times.
Saint Lambert desired that he make a pilgrimage in his name to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome, and Saint Hubert obeyed; while he was there his bishop was martyred, and he himself was miraculously designated to the Pope as his successor. The Pope dreamed he should give him the pastoral staff of the deceased Saint Lambert, and found that staff beside him when he woke in the morning; he could not doubt the reality of the admonition. Additional supernatural interventions assured Saint Hubert himself of the designation, and he was obliged to obey.
When the Saint returned to Maestricht in possession of the pontifical habits of his predecessor, which had been miraculously brought to him, the people too were obliged to recognize their new bishop. He proved himself humble, sober, chaste, vigilant, modest, assiduous in prayer, fervent, patient, and a great friend of the Cross. He became the refuge of the poor and afflicted; all the unfortunate were welcome to come to him. He received them as his children, and helped them in every possible way. He brought the intact remains of Saint Lambert to Liege, and built there a magnificent church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and Saint Lambert, to receive his tomb; he also transferred the seat of the diocese to that town, which afterwards became a large city. Many miracles were wrought through his prayers, and he taught his people to have recourse to processions, carrying the relics of the Saints to obtain rain, to rid the fields of destructive insects, and for other public necessities. The humility of Saint Hubert never diminished through these divine favors granted his ministry; rather his fervor increased day by day.
Saint Hubert died after dedicating a church, despite his advanced age, at the request of his flock; he was seized by a fever which became violent. After bidding farewell to his son, and by means of holy water driving away a demon who would have affrighted him with horrible phantoms, the holy bishop died on May 30, 727, and was buried in the church of Saint Peter at Liege. In 743 his body was found intact and emitting a fine fragrance, when the tomb was opened on November 3rd; his feast day was assigned by the Church to this date. In the year 825 the body was still identically conserved when his tomb was again opened, and he was transported to a monastery at Andage, which town was renamed St. Hubert.
Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13.